Stuck in Guided Setup with SO3 error

I'm having problems with my TiVo HD. I started having guide updating issues a few months ago. Restarting the TiVo normally fixed if for 2 weeks. Last week I got the SO3 error. Trying to fix it I tried to run Guided Setup again thinking it would start over, how wrong I was. I'm now stuck at the guided setup. Tech support has no helpful information other than to keep trying to connect to TiVo at less busy hours. I've tried the kickstart 54, all hard drives passed, I've tried the kickstart 57 no issues. I've tried changing my zip code, no luck. I've changed to antennae instead of cable, no luck. I've tried dial up, wireless usb, and back to ethernet, no luck. The TiVo keeps getting stuck on the loading part of the connection process. Any clues on how to get out of this loop?

You need to reimage your Tivo drive. While you're at it, use Spinrite or some other utility on the hard drive that's in there to make sure there's no bad sectors.

Next time, as you have learned, try a simple reset, followed by clearing thumbs data, followed by clearing to do list & guide data, followed by clear and delete everything. Or just let it go. Unless you have run out of guide data, there is no need to panic. It often resolves on its own. Whatever you do, do not rerun guided setup.

I will never run guided setup again. They really should remove that option once seeing as it basically bricks the device. Sadly resets had stopped working. I have been without guide data for about 3 days, so nothing was getting recorded unless I manually recorded, which defeats the purpose. Thanks for the help though. How do I go about reimaging my harddrive? Any programs better than others? I have a linxus based computer I've just started playing with, can I do anything using it to fix this problem?

I will never run guided setup again. They really should remove that option once seeing as it basically bricks the device. Sadly resets had stopped working. I have been without guide data for about 3 days, so nothing was getting recorded unless I manually recorded, which defeats the purpose. Thanks for the help though. How do I go about reimaging my harddrive? Any programs better than others? I have a linxus based computer I've just started playing with, can I do anything using it to fix this problem?

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I'm surprised a clear and delete everything didn't fix the problem. If that didn't work, I'd strongly suspect the hard drive. As long as you have your Tivo open, you might as well replace that hard drive with a bigger hard drive.

has instructions and support. You don't need Linux anymore, you can use WinMFS to restore an image. But you'll have to get a new image from somewhere -- I'm pretty sure you can't backup your existing image because you're stuck in Guided Setup. Tivoupgrade sells Instantcake (which contains the tools and the image and is pretty idiot-proof) for $40.

If Kickstart57 didn't help your TiVoHD, there's a good chance that you may need to replace the drive rather than just reimage it. S03 means the box can't index the data. You didn't mention an expander or if you got errors with KS54, so try the following in this order:

* - Start by doing guided setup for antenna only. There's a lot less data to handle. That should let you get back into the menus but doesn't mean you're out of the woods.
* - You already tried Kickstart57. 58 might help but it's unlikely.
* - C&DE is a pretty good option at this point.

Well, got word from TiVo tech support that we've done all that can be done. I need to send in the box and get a replacement. Might be a good time to just upgrade to the premire since I'm going to have to do the whole cable card thing again. I really hate TWC. Maybe I'll get lucky and I can just call in the CC numbers and such and not need a truck roll out.

I have a Tivo Series 2 and having problem get beyond the guided setup. I do not see any digital converter boxes during the setup. The selection screen is empty. I believed it's missing an update or the software is too old on my tivo. Please help.

I can tell you if you do a Kickstart57 and afterwards you just see a green screen and it keeps rebooting then it's something wrong with the hard drive. I don't advise anyone to do a Kickstart57 without consulting TiVo tech support first. If your currently just getting a green screen you'll need to call in to tivo to set up an RMA or try to replace the hard drive yourself. Weakness does a good job on replacing hard drives too (Good option if you have a lifetime on the tivo box for more then 3 years)

I have a Tivo Series 2 and having problem get beyond the guided setup. I do not see any digital converter boxes during the setup. The selection screen is empty. I believed it's missing an update or the software is too old on my tivo. Please help.

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Your issue is different than the one described in this thread. You aren't seeing an S03 error.

Instead, you have what is covered by our Digital antenna support article.
This only happens when an S2 running older software (pre-7.2) calls in for the first time. It receives the new digital antenna DB type but isn't capable of handling it. Once it gets new software, the issue remains.

As indicated in the article, contact CS and they will map your DVR to receive a runme that will wipe out the DB and cause it download again. Your problem will be fixed immediately.

You can also try PM'ing me with your 15-digit TSN, but TCF servers have been timing out a lot recently so I may not be able to help out as quickly as CS.

I decided to upgrade to the TiVo Premire. Getting the 3 year warrenty though. To anyone that reads this, DO NOT RUN GUIDED SETUP unless told to be tech support and only after asking them if you really should be doing that. Really sucks I bricked a perfectly working TiVo HD.

That's nonsense and a bizarro warning. I've been using a TiVo since late Feb 2001 (started with a Sony SVR-2000 Series 1) and not once have I ever "bricked" a working TiVo by running guided setup.

I've had to do it in order to setup the TiVo, because I've moved, because I've restored from an image, etc. and others have had to do it because I loaned them a TiVo.

If you had a bad drive, replacing the drive is relatively easy and inexpensive.

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Actually, his Tivo was NOT working when he ran guided setup. That same warning has come several times from TivoJerry. If the Tivo is working fine, then great. Run guided setup when you move. But if it's acting up, do not run guided setup. It is not a diagnostic tool. All it will do is get you into trouble.

Once in a while the drive is good but the guide data is corrupt. Or Tivo simply can't digest it. Or it was mis-loaded and the internal database is now corrupt. Waiting a few days usually works. If not, there are other things that can be done to repair the corruption in the database that are less destructive than guided setup.

I'm posting this in all the threads related to Guided Setup loops as I have not seen this advice anywhere on the nets:

How to get out of Guided Setup:1. Prerequisite--have to have either a serial cable connection to get a shell or a telnet connection to get a shell on the TiVo--there are plenty of resources to show how to do these options elsewhere.2. disconnect the Tuning Adapter and unplug all cable cards3. let the TiVo boot up to the Guided Setup entry page, but don't click select with the remote4. telnet in to the TiVo (or access through the serial link5. type (without quotes):
dbgc-mcp -fg-gc
this initiates a garbage collection, and since the Tuning Adapter and CableCards are not connected, it does not distract the TiVo from completing GC

6. WAIT for this command to complete. Took mine several hours7. once dbgc-mcp has completed, go through Guided Setup and it should now complete

Notes: I was having trouble getting fakecall.tcl to work in rc.sysinit.author--it ran fine from the command prompt, but did not bypass the guided setup for me, so perhaps I wasn't doing something right there. Nevertheless, fakecall.tcl is still called from my rc.sysinit.author file, but it was having no effect, so I don't think it played any role in the solution above.

I welcome comments back. This fix does not correct the S03 problem itself, just gets you past the Guided Setup loop. It has been 3.5 years since I had the S03 problem, so now am retracing my steps. My solution at that time was to increase swap space to 2GB, so I think that fended off the problem for a long time.

I had my own problems with program guide information running out. Rebooting seemed to take care of it; then about a month later it did not. I then noticed the S03 error happening at times. Then I had only one day of items in To Do list after leaving TA and network connection unplugged for a couple days. I then could get good repeated downloads but despite have full programming information in the Guide I still have no new items in the To Do list.

After a lot of reading about this plus the GC; I concluded it was a drive going bad and not having enough throughput to complete indexing before the next download.

Unplugging the TA or powering off was interesting. I figure it helps if tivo is tuned to a channel it can no longer get so it is no longer buffering two video streams to the hard drive. This make all the reduced I/O performance available to the GC/Indexing.

I then got Tivo support on chat and they were clueless except that the indexing needs to complete using the downloaded guide information before Tivo can find a show to put in the To Do list. Navigating through the menus got very very slow after a reboot.

I pulled the drives (internal and external). Did dd rescue to two new WD blue drives I got on sale months ago. Some say the are hotter than the green ones but after the copy they were very cool and cooler than the Hitachi I pulled. The Hitachis had a date of 2009. I think all the disk manufactures are getting better at reducing heat. The first Hitacati 1 TB drives were almost too hot to touch. By 2009 then got a lot cooler.

I hooked the drives back up to the Tivo HD. Menus were quick though the system information was missing information like account status. Maybe it needs to "find itself" and get computer at Tivo to agree is the the same Tivo with different drives. I rebooted after a while and everything started working. No download issues and GC took a day to catch up.

I had my own problems with program guide information running out. Rebooting seemed to take care of it; then about a month later it did not. I then noticed the S03 error happening at times. Then I had only one day of items in To Do list after leaving TA and network connection unplugged for a couple days. I then could get good repeated downloads but despite have full programming information in the Guide I still have no new items in the To Do list.

After a lot of reading about this plus the GC; I concluded it was a drive going bad and not having enough throughput to complete indexing before the next download.

Unplugging the TA or powering off was interesting. I figure it helps if tivo is tuned to a channel it can no longer get so it is no longer buffering two video streams to the hard drive. This make all the reduced I/O performance available to the GC/Indexing.

I then got Tivo support on chat and they were clueless except that the indexing needs to complete using the downloaded guide information before Tivo can find a show to put in the To Do list. Navigating through the menus got very very slow after a reboot.

I pulled the drives (internal and external). Did dd rescue to two new WD blue drives I got on sale months ago. Some say the are hotter than the green ones but after the copy they were very cool and cooler than the Hitachi I pulled. The Hitachis had a date of 2009. I think all the disk manufactures are getting better at reducing heat. The first Hitacati 1 TB drives were almost too hot to touch. By 2009 then got a lot cooler.

I hooked the drives back up to the Tivo HD. Menus were quick though the system information was missing information like account status. Maybe it needs to "find itself" and get computer at Tivo to agree is the the same Tivo with different drives. I rebooted after a while and everything started working. No download issues and GC took a day to catch up.

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The Blues run a little hotter than the Greens (not surprising, since they spin faster--which is wasted on the TiVo), but it's the Blacks that double as short order grills.

I made the mistake of going into guided setup after trying numerous solutions to fix the S03 error. From here I was totally stuck in the loop from hell and couldn't get out of it. I tried every one of the above solutions and anything I could think of to no avail. The kickstart commands would not even take anymore.

What worked for me and I wanted to share is (may not work for everyone)&#8230;

I had upgraded my drive a few years ago and in the process made a backup image of that original drive. I found that old image and restored it to the current HD using WinMFS.

After I did that I was able to successfully get the drive out of guided setup and to go through and connect and download data &#8211; it was out of the guided setup loop and also no more S03 errors!

Because the old image was showing my programs from years past in the menu, I also did a complete erase everything command.

My TiVo is now a few days in and working fine. The downside being I lost all my recorded programs and ratings. The upside is that the machine is not just working but seems to be noticeably faster and better than ever. I got my series 3 in 2003 so that means if my original settings carried over when I upgraded my HD there was potentially 11 years of data, ratings and season passes clogging up my machine. The complete reformat and start from the beginning has made it faster, and again restoring the drive from an old image got me out of guided setup.

As a first step for anyone getting continual s03 errors, I would suggest doing the erase everything command &#8211;I didn&#8217;t do this, but suspect it may have helped my issue. ....and as has been noted here multiple times DO NOT TRY GUIDED SETUP!

But once stuck in Guided Setup loop hell, reinstall from an old drive image. If you don&#8217;t have one maybe try to get one from someone with the same model if possible.

I'm posting this in all the threads related to Guided Setup loops as I have not seen this advice anywhere on the nets:

How to get out of Guided Setup:1. Prerequisite--have to have either a serial cable connection to get a shell or a telnet connection to get a shell on the TiVo--there are plenty of resources to show how to do these options elsewhere.2. disconnect the Tuning Adapter and unplug all cable cards3. let the TiVo boot up to the Guided Setup entry page, but don't click select with the remote4. telnet in to the TiVo (or access through the serial link5. type (without quotes):
dbgc-mcp -fg-gc
this initiates a garbage collection, and since the Tuning Adapter and CableCards are not connected, it does not distract the TiVo from completing GC

6. WAIT for this command to complete. Took mine several hours7. once dbgc-mcp has completed, go through Guided Setup and it should now complete

I welcome comments back. This fix does not correct the S03 problem itself, just gets you past the Guided Setup loop. It has been 3.5 years since I had the S03 problem, so now am retracing my steps. My solution at that time was to increase swap space to 2GB, so I think that fended off the problem for a long time.

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Thanks ravingfans! This worked like a charm! Running the garbage collection command actually does seem to stop that s03 problem and stops me from having to unplug my transport adapter every few days. Downside, the command needs to executed periodically.

I'm posting this in all the threads related to Guided Setup loops as I have not seen this advice anywhere on the nets:

How to get out of Guided Setup:1. Prerequisite--have to have either a serial cable connection to get a shell or a telnet connection to get a shell on the TiVo--there are plenty of resources to show how to do these options elsewhere.2. disconnect the Tuning Adapter and unplug all cable cards3. let the TiVo boot up to the Guided Setup entry page, but don't click select with the remote4. telnet in to the TiVo (or access through the serial link5. type (without quotes):
dbgc-mcp -fg-gc
this initiates a garbage collection, and since the Tuning Adapter and CableCards are not connected, it does not distract the TiVo from completing GC

6. WAIT for this command to complete. Took mine several hours7. once dbgc-mcp has completed, go through Guided Setup and it should now complete

Notes: I was having trouble getting fakecall.tcl to work in rc.sysinit.author--it ran fine from the command prompt, but did not bypass the guided setup for me, so perhaps I wasn't doing something right there. Nevertheless, fakecall.tcl is still called from my rc.sysinit.author file, but it was having no effect, so I don't think it played any role in the solution above.

I welcome comments back. This fix does not correct the S03 problem itself, just gets you past the Guided Setup loop. It has been 3.5 years since I had the S03 problem, so now am retracing my steps. My solution at that time was to increase swap space to 2GB, so I think that fended off the problem for a long time.

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Is there a way to run this command by removing the hard drive from the tivo, connecting to a computer, and using Linux, WinMFS, etc?